Neighbors
by Songbird's Spirit
Summary: Mollie just moved in next door to Toriel and the lovely goat lady already invited her to dinner. But now there’s the issue of the pie. What the hell is she going to do about the pie?
1. New Home

While she'd be a complete idiot to admit it, humans being wary of monsters had worked out pretty well for her. It had only been about a year since they had emerged from the underground with hopes of peace and mutual growth and it was already having interesting effects on the town.

Monsters tended to stick together. If they could get housing close to one another they would and it was simply out of habit. Entire streets of rental housing were taken up by monsters. And unfortunately that didn't sit well with some humans. Hell, a guy from her graduating class had lived on Mulsville St. for about a decade, but when monsters began moving there in droves his whole family just packed up and left. It had tugged at her heart the wrong way when she'd heard about it.

But this little phenomena had given her something beautiful. It had given her a chance! A chance to finally, finally move out of her parent's house! A cute little yellow house was now hers to rent now that the rent was finally low enough to afford. With the landlords so desperate to fill the remaining or emptying homes they'd dropped rent just enough for her budget. Money was definitely going to be tight for awhile, bit she could invest in a roommate later if it got to be too much.

Mollie flopped onto the haphazardly placed couch, just barely avoiding tripping over and unpacked box in the process. Boxes upon boxes filled her living room and the thought of decorating a space that was entirely her own was absolutely thrilling.

Juuuusst…

"There is no way in hell I'm unpacking anything except some clothes and shower stuff." Mollie muttered and massaged her arms. "Moving is exhausting."

She snuggled into the cushions, fully intent on convincing herself that a teensy weensy little nap couldn't hurt, but no such luck. Mollie jumped a bit as she heard a rapping on her door. She raised a brow but elected to get off the couch. She could only guess that it was probably her neighbors.

"Oh, yeah. Definitely a neighbor." She snorted, spying a large white goat through the peephole on the door.

Mollie took a moment to straighten her hair a plaster on a I'm-not-as-tired-as-I-look sort of smile and swung open the door.

"Hello?"

Oh! Hello there m- Miss." The goat replied, stumbling a bit on her words. She was quite a bit taller but her eyes and smile were nothing but friendly. "My name is Toriel."

"Nice to meet you, I'm Mollie." the girl replied and offered a hand, "I'm guessing you're one of the neighbors?"

Toriel hummed a laugh and shook her hand before gesturing to the two-story blue house just across a lovely white picket fence. "Yes, right next door in fact." she paused and glanced at the house to the left. "Actually, if I'm not mistaken I think I might be your only direct neighbor."

"Ohh," Mollie chuckled nervously, "Did they, uh, move recently?"

Oh, wow, that's awkward. Mollie wanted to die a little inside, her gut screaming that the house probably belonged to some humans less than a year ago. She felt her palms go sweaty and took some solace in the fact that Toriel's expression also seemed to have shifted somewhat awkwardly.

"Um, yes. A lovely couple and their dog used to live there." She cleared her throat. "Though I believe they were preparing for children, hehe. You can never have enough room for them."

'Wow, smooth deflection goat lady.' Mollie nearly cracked a not-so-awkward smile.

"Well, it's not a big deal. I'm sure someone will move in soon." Mollie waved dismissively, "In any case, thank you for coming to say hello. It's always relieving to know if your neighbors are nice."

Toriel offered a gentle smile. "Of course, dear. If you aren't too terribly busy tomorrow, would you like to join us for dinner tomorrow? As a proper welcome to the neighborhood of course."

Mollie's heart jumped a bit, thrilled at the thought of a home-cooked meal. "Oh, um, wow. Yes, thank you, that's so kind of you." Mollie coughed, trying not to let the genuine sweetness tear her up, "I'd love to."

"That's wonderful, shall we exchange numbers?"

With a smile and her emotions at ease Mollie readily exchanged numbers with the friendly monster and said her goodbyes. The promise of good food and potentially better company was enough to put a smile on her face.

But before Mollie could slip her phone into her pocket it buzzed. Among a string of unanswered messages shown a new one from an unknown number.

**Maybe: Toriel: Hello! This is Toriel! For no particular reason, which do you prefer? Butterscotch or cinnamon?**

Mollie let out a little snort and told the nice goat she preferred butterscotch. Flopping onto the couch, hopefully for the last time that day, Mollie quickly fell asleep.

It was going to be the start of something beautiful**.**


	2. Old Friend

_Six months. _

God, those words were starting to sound like a looming threat. But Mollie wasn't going to worry about that right now. Instead she stood barefoot in her kitchen quietly deciding whether to skip breakfast and just start unpacking, or take the time to track down the kitchen boxes for some food.

Though now that she thought about it her options were pretty limited. She had nothing in her fridge. No milk for cereal, no eggs to scramble, no butter for toast, and no fruit to dice up.

Hell, she didn't even have a measly banana.

Mollie signed and pinched the bridge of her nose, quietly cursing their names. "Looks like I don't get to unpack or have breakfast. I just get to go shopping. How lucky for me." She grumped.

She was shopping on an empty stomach too. That was going to go over _real _well. Mollie half heartedly grabbed the boxcutter from her purse and began slicing away at tape until she found some clothes.

It would have been so much easier on her if she'd had time to _label _her boxes. But alas that was asking for way too much. It had been almost too much of a hassle to sneak the boxes up there, even more so to keep them out of sight.

Mollie paused for a second before whipping out her phone, opting to again ignore the wall of text messages in favor of a friend.

**Mollie: Hey! I know it's kinda early but wanna come shopping with me? I have basically no essentials. Lol**

She thankfully didn't have to wait too long, and was only elbows deep in a box of clothes when her phone went off.

**Camille: Hey hon! Yeah, I don't mind. But can we get breakfast too?**

**Mollie: Sure. Has to be something cheap tho.**

**Camille: Right. You're on a budget now. How was moving?**

**Mollie: Absolutely exhausting. I was halfway to mentally drained by the time the truck got there. On the bright side, I slept awesome last night. And I know you said not to mention it but seriously. Thanks. **

**Camille: Lol, I can imagine and don't even worry about it. But...uh, on that note, what about your parents?**

Mollie paused and thumbed her phone for a bit. She chewed on her lip out of nervous habit. It wasn't a great feeling...or thought.

**Mollie: I dunno, I'm pretty sure they know. Well know I'm gone at least. I don't know if they've gleaned that I've moved yet. **

**Camille: They haven't messaged you?**

**Mollie: Cam, I have 62 missed messages I'm too scared to look at. I'm pretty sure they know at the very least that I didn't come home last night. **

**Camille: Oh…well fuck. **

**Mollie: Yeah. Anyway we can talk about this later. Where should we meet to go shopping?**

They pair ended up picking a place in the city. It wouldn't be too much of a hassle on either of them to get there. Mollie elected to call an Uber to the metro rather than trying to get a read on the bus system so early. It was also a bit too early for her to fully care about how she looked. A pair of sweatpants and a hoodie would do her just fine.

Camille, at least in Mollie's opinion, was really fucking pretty. Tan skin and chocolate brown hair and eyeliner than never seemed to suffer a bad day. It was times like these that Mollie questioned herself at least a little bit.

However she always wore something red. Bright red actually. So it made it easier to spot her in the crowd of the supermarket.

"Camille!" Mollie called, waving to her friend.

"Mollie! Honey!" Camille rushed over decked in a lovely looking red pea coat. It looked so warm…

The two friends hugged, Camille a bit tighter than expected.

"Let me just say, and I'm sorry if this kills the mood, but I'm really glad things are working out for you." Camille blurted, "You know, even if you look, well, absolutely exhausted."

"Wow, call me out why dontcha?"

"Oh, I do it out of love!" she giggled, "Besides, you know what I say about honesty."

"Nothing, Camille, you never say anything about honesty. You liar." Mollie huffed, a smile wide on her face.

"You...shut up." Camille let out a breathy laugh before ushering Mollie towards the entrance. "So, you need essentials?"

"Well, yeah. It's not like my dear old parents would have let me bum some milk and sugar." Mollie sighed, "Not even if they knew I was moving."

"I, uh, I'm sorry. Really."

"They're going to be furious. Hell, they're probably already furious. I've basically cut ties for good. Fuck."

The pair grabbed carts and turned down the aisles.

"Anyway, I really don't want to talk about this right now. I kind of want to enjoy the new place before the stress and anxiety set in entirely, y'know?" Mollie gave her friend a strained smile and grabbed some bread from the shelf.

"Fair enough, so you got a grocery budget?"

"Uh, yeah. Only $50.00 for the week so I'm literally _just _doing essentials right now."

"What about lunch and dinner?"

"Funny story, my neighbors invited me to dinner tonight. It's like a welcoming party." Mollie hummed, "I should probably bring something...maybe some wine?"

"Didn't you move into a monster community?"

Mollie stumbled a bit, "Well, I mean...I guess? I don't know if I'd call it that."

"Pfft, I would." Camille shrugged, "It's literally street after street of monsters in some of the suburbs now. I mean, it's good cover given like...your mom and all." Camille paused and pursed her lips. "Sorry. Didn't mean to loop back around to that."

Mollie awkwardly squeezed the bar of her shopping cart, "Do you...have a problem? With monsters I mean?"

"No. Haven't even met one yet. But I'm also like, not really going out of my way to do so either." Camille shrugged, "That might make me sound like a bitch but I swear I'm not trying to be one."

"I mean not really. Maybe a little...just a smidge." She paused for an awkward moment, "Just don't go torching houses or bullying anyone online, alright."

Camille rolled her eyes, "Please, I'm an avoidant not an extremist. People that do shit like that really boil my blood. Like, mind your own business. Sheesh."

"Yeah, it's only been one place so far though, so that's good. It's not nearly as bad as I was expecting."

"Did that guy's court verdict release yet?"

"I don't think his trial happened yet."

The pair fell into easy conversation as they continued to shop. Mollie elected to buy some assorted chocolates for Toriel instead of the wine. She seemed like the type to splurge on a couple of sweets every once in awhile. And, well, Toriel didn't really strike her as the drinking type. Lucky for Mollie, the shopping trip managed not to break her budget even with the chocolates.

"So, right, you wanted to eat. Any place in mind?" Mollie asked.

"I saw a cafe on the way here if that's alright?"

"Yeah, sure. I hope they have tea."

"Don't you have tea on you?"

"Heh, yeah. Sadly tea is going to become one of my precious splurge items. Maybe." Mollie gave a reluctant sigh. "Or maybe I'll just start trying those two dollar boxes instead. Won't be any good though."

Camille laughed at her, "Or maybe you shouldn't make tea with leaf pearls and just use bags like...y'know, a normal person."

"I am allowed to like pearls Cammy," Mollie huffed playfully and stuck her tongue out at her friend.

"You're so weird."

"Remind me again how much red is in your wardrobe?"

"...shut up."

"Yeah, that's what I thought."

Breakfast was nice and it was wonderful to catch up with Camille in an environment that wasn't stressful for a change. Mollie opted to spend the rest of her free time clearing out boxes and putting things where they belonged. It wasn't much but at least the house had appliances. She didn't even have a crappy TV to plug in somewhere but she did have a fireplace.

So that was going to be the couch view for the time being. Not the Mollie actually had any wood to burn and her boxes probably wouldn't last that long. She figured she could probably find some branches scattered around the back yard but really didn't care enough to check yet.

Yet.

It wouldn't be long before it started getting much colder outside.

It was mid-november already. It wouldn't be long until spring. Her last year of university was spring of next year.

...that was going to be interesting.

All in all, after a couple hours of work the place looked monumentally better than before. She stopped to check the time.

**5:41**

Huh, dinner started at six. Mollie winced, figuring she probably should have showered before heading over to greet a menagerie of new neighbors. The best she could do was a halfway to heavy deodorant shower and some nice clothes with some fold wrinkles.

**5:54**

She took a deep breath and gathered her purse and assorted chocolates from the counter. It was time for dinner.


End file.
